Thursday, September 4, 2014

I know I said that Mainwashed was on it's way to the graveyard and that I wouldn't post here anymore, but I did want to get the word out about another blog that I've started that has a very large focus on survival.

Now, I used to post a lot about survival techniques and preparedness both here on the blog and on the Mainwashed Facebook page. You never know when a disaster will strike, or your own government may turn on you and you will need to bug out and perhaps even live off the land for a while to keep yourself and your family safe.

This new blog that I've started though will primarily focus on survival, but will also talk about hiking, camping and other general outdoor activities. Posts will be weekly every Monday!

Friday, August 8, 2014

It is with deep regret that I have decided to abandon Mainwashed. I think we had a good run in 2013, but our main source of traffic and exposure was through Facebook. In 2013 we grew from nothing to well over 50,000 followers which was awesome, but in January Facebook started to seriously stifle our reach and it hurt us badly.

In fact, every day I login to our Facebook page I've seen a steady decline of our followers. Our likes drop about 5-10 per day, and we really haven't changed the way we operate. I thought that maybe I would try doing a podcast, but just seeing that number decline every day tells me to give up on that too.

Because of that I've decided to jump ship. I'll leave the Facebook page up so the other admins can still have a place to post if they wish, but as far as the domain, mainwashed.com, I think when it comes up for renewal I'll let it expire.

Thanks for all the fun, and I thought we really made a difference during the gun control debates last year, but it's time for me to move on.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

[Daily Caller] A federal judge has ordered the government to stop destroying National Security Agency surveillance records that could be used to challenge the legality of its spying programs in court.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White’s ruling came at the request of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is in the midst of a case challenging NSA’s ability to surveil foreign citizen’s U.S.-based email and social media accounts.

According to the EFF, the signals intelligence agency and the Department of Justice were knowingly destroying key evidence in the case by purposefully misinterpreting earlier preservation orders by multiple courts, multiple times.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

[Reuters] Sunni rebels from an al Qaeda splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the Shi'ite-led government.

The threat to the Baiji refinery comes after militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized the northern city of Mosul, advancing their aim of creating a Sunni Caliphate straddling the border between Iraq and Syria.

The fall of Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, is a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's attempts to defeat the militants, who have seized territory in Iraq over the past year following the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

About 500,000 Iraqis have fled Mosul, home to 2 million people, and the surrounding province, many seeking safety in the autonomous Kurdistan region.

The insurgents are now in control of between 10 and 15 pct of Iraqi territory, excluding Kurdistan, and have led many Iraqis to fear they have the capital, Baghdad, in their sights.

Friday, March 28, 2014

[Forbes] California Democratic State Senator and candidate for California Secretary of State, Leland Yee, a gun control advocate, has been charged with conspiring to traffic in firearms and public corruption. The charges are part of a 26 person criminal complaint and a major FBI sting operation. The full criminal complaint is a massive 137 pages that tells the story of Yee’s involvement with a broad ranging conspiracy that includes firearms trafficking, murder-for-hire, drug distribution, trafficking in contraband cigarettes, money laundering, and honest services fraud.

Yee is charged with “conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and to illegally import firearms” as well as six counts of honest services fraud. Each corruption charge is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, while the gun-trafficking charge is punishable by up to five years and $250,000.

The firearms laws Yee is alleged to have specifically violated make it unlawful for any person:

except a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer, to engage in the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing in firearms, or in the course of such business to ship, transport, or receive any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce

and make it unlawful for any person:

to transport or ship in interstate or foreign commerce, any stolen firearm or stolen ammunition, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the firearm or ammunition was stolen.

According to the criminal complaint, Yee was involved in a wide ranging scheme to make an end run around campaign finance laws. Yee sought to illegally raise funds to retire his debt from his failed mayoral campaign so that he could clear the way for his run for California Secretary of State. Working with San Francisco political consultant Keith Jackson, Yee used his power and influence to perform official acts in exchange for donations. On one occasion, Yee agreed to call a manager at the California Department of Public Health to urge support of a contract that was under consideration by the agency, Yee also agreed to provide an official letter of support in exchange for a $10,000 campaign donation. On another occasion, Yee agreed to introduce donors to various state legislators with influence over pending and proposed medical marijuana legislation, Yee is alleged to have done so in exchange for $11,000 in cash.

Monday, February 17, 2014

[Libertyblitzkrieg.com] One of my most popular posts of 2013 highlighted the decline of America’s once large and enviable middle class. It was titled: How Does America’s Middle Class Rank Globally? #27, and it helped to dispel many myths Americans (particularly the mainstream propaganda media) continue to tell to themselves.

As you might expect, the economic decline of a nation into rule by a handful of corrupt oligarchs will have many other negative repercussions. One of these is a loss of civil rights and freedoms that many of us have taken for granted. Reporters Without Borders puts out their Press Freedom Index every year, and the 2014 ranking came out today. It was not a good showing for the USSA. Specifically, the U.S. registered one of the steepest falls of all nations, down 13 slots to the #46 position. As the screen shot shows, just above Haiti and just below Romania.

[The Hill] Legislation to rein in the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs has stalled in the House and Senate.

More than 130 House lawmakers in both parties have signed on as co-sponsors to legislation that would prevent the NSA from collecting bulk records about people’s phone calls. In the Senate, companion legislation has won 20 co-sponsors.

Both bills, however, have been stuck in their chambers’ respective Judiciary Committees since October, and committee aides say there are no plans to move them soon.

In the House, Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) seems to be waiting for the Obama administration to take a formal position on the USA Freedom Act, authored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), before scheduling a markup.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wants to see what recommendations Attorney General Eric Holder and top intelligence leaders make by a March 28 deadline set by President Obama.

Despite the sluggishness, advocates for sweeping changes to the NSA say they aren’t discouraged. They say it’s only a matter of time before something passes through Congress.

[RT] A privacy law passed in Utah last year limits the use of license plate readers and aims to keep the data collected by them from being abused; now two surveillance companies that sell those scanners are suing the state for alleged free-speech infringement.

The two companies — California’s Vigilant Solutions and Digital Recognition Network (DRN) of Texas — filed the lawsuit in Utah federal court on Thursday and asked a judge there for a permanent injunction against last year’s law.

When the legislation was signed by Governor Gary Herbert last April, it imposed restrictions on how the high-tech surveillance tools can be used across the state, essentially abolishing the sale and use of license plate readers by private companies while also putting limits on how long government entities can store the data collected by those devices.

License plate readers, or LPRs, can photograph upwards of 60 cars-per-second and then match that data with details stored in a list that contains the tags registered to criminals or ones ordered for repossession. A handful of states have passed laws putting limits on these devices, though, often by claiming that collecting this information for extended amounts of time allows anyone with ownership of it to pry into the personal lives of others.

“A person who knows all of another’s travels can deduce whether he is a weekly church goer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts,” the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled in 2010.

When State Sen. Todd Weiler (R-Woods Cross) proposed the privacy bill, S.B. 196, last February, he asked that the state stop private companies from collecting this information and that the government be forced to give up the data after 90 days.